The present ivention relates to an oxygen absorbent utilizing reducing ability of a sulfite, and particularly, an oxygen absorbent comprising at least one alkaline earth metal sulfite, at least one ferrous compound and free water. The absorbent may contain at least one ammonium salt and/or at least one filler.
In order to preserve foodstuffs, such as vegetables, fish, shellfish, meats, processed foodstuffs, such as potato chips, cakes, peanuts, etc., and so on, it is necessary to prevent the foodstuffs' from getting moldy and from putrefying. Prior art methods have used freezer storage, CA cold storage, vacuum packaging and replacing the gas present in the inner part of packaging by an inert gas for preventing foodstuffs from getting moldy and putrefying. Additives, such as antioxidant, have been used for preserving foodstuffs. Recently, governments have started to regulate the use of additives for food, since it is realized that some additives are injurious to humans. The freezer storage method requires large-scale apparatus and complicated operation, so the freezer storage method is costly.
Molds or eumycetes, bacterias and higher organisms such as insects tend to disturb preservation of foodstuffs. These mold eumycetes, bacterias and insects live and grow in the presence of oxygen and cause putrefaction and change in quality of foodstuffs.
Therefore, if oxygen can be selectively removed from the atmosphere in which the foodstuff is packed, the problem of putrefaction and change in quality of a foodstuff can be overcome, and it will become possible to preserve the foodstuff for a long time. An oxygen absorbent was known for achieving the above purpose. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,651 discloses an oxygen absorbent obtained by mixing a sulfite and a metal salt, at least one of which has water of crystallization, followed by compressing the mixture to form pellets.
In general, it was known that although a sulfite does absorb oxygen through oxidization, its rate of oxidization is very slow, even in open air. In other words even when a sulfite is allowed to stand in air for several months, the sulfite hardly changes. Therefore, a sulfite can not be used as it is for preventing putrefaction and change in quality of foodstuffs. It was also known that when a metal salt and a sulfite are present in the state of an aqueous solution, the metal salt acts as a catalyst for oxidizing the sulfite. When the sulfite and the metal salt are present in solid state, the metal salt has little catalytic action. Therefore, U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,652 proposes a process for preparing an oxygen absorbent comprising mixing a finely divided sulfite and a finely divided metal salt and compression-pelletizing the mixture in order to increase the rate of the oxidation of the sulfite. However, the process of U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,651 requires powdering apparatus and compression apparatus and complicated operation. Also, it was found that the increase in the rate of oxidation of the sulfite was not sufficient. That is, it was found that the pellets prepared by mixing a sulfite powder and a metal salt powder, both having an average particle size of less than 100 microns, followed by pelletizing the mixture have a low oxygen-absorbing rate.